Greetings St. John! As your Sheriff, I am happy to have been given the opportunity to address the readers of L’Observateur in a monthly article.

There is so much I can cover in a space like this, and it is difficult to know where to begin. So I think I should start at the beginning.

Despite the surprising realization that it’s Election Year already, I have actually only been Sheriff for two years and nine months.  If you look closely at my first term, I spent the first year as a crisis manager, simply doing my best to handle everything from devastation and heart break in our departmental family to devastation and heart break in our community family.

Less than 60 days in office, I experienced two officers fallen, two officers severely injured and more than 75 members of SJSO became homeless.

This took priority over setting forth my vision for the transformation of the department. But when the timing was right, the transformation began, training was initiated and hiring increased.

Since July 1, 2012, we have 31 new POST certified officers. In addition, seven officers have attended training at the International Chief of Police Conference for the first time in their SJSO careers.

Five officers who have never attended the Louisiana Sheriff’s Association Conference have been given the experience of networking with the other Sheriffs from all over the state. Our 911 operators currently attend 1,380 hours total over an eight-month period for the first time in SJSO history.

Many other task specific training courses are being attended by other officers, and this has been evident in the results of our improved crime solving capabilities over the past two years.

Our technology department has seen the largest transformation. We now have the paperless business check system. Local businesses can call the Sheriff’s Office and register to have a bar code placed on the door of their business.

When an officer checks the business for safety during the night, he scans the bar code using an IPad, and it sends an email to the owner, letting them know when the business was checked and if any problems were found.

We have also implemented an alert system that can notify every member of the department of a major incident via email and text message.

In my attempt to be as transparent as possible, SJSO has created a free app for all smart phones. This gives citizens daily information on arrests and the locations of crime around the parish.

Most of the same information can be found on our Facebook page and our website at stjohnsheriff.org.

Despite a rough start and still another year and three months left in my first term, I am proud of the direction that the department is headed. I am proud to work alongside the men and women who pledge to protect and serve the citizens of St. John.

And I look forward to sharing more of the department’s endeavors and accomplishments each month in this column of the L’Observateur!

— St. John the Baptist Parish Sheriff Mike Tregre can be reached at sheriff@stjohnsheriff.org.